I'm connecting to target computer through SSH from command line. Target computer is running Gnome. I need to be able to tell the target computer to change its desktop to a fullscreen text console (like when you do ctrl-alt-f2). Running Gnome terminal fullscreen is not an option. Is this possible?

I don't know why I got downvotes, but I'm happy I asked because you and 200_success gave me a working solution! I'd also upvote but don't have enough reputation for that.
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user14742Oct 29 '12 at 22:59

You will want to use wmctrl. It's a program which can mess with X windows. More information can be found here. Also: Wikipedia article and man page. This program can be installed on the target machine by running apt-get install wmctrl.